CA first to feature digital textbooks statewide

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today the selection of the first 10 free digital textbooks in math and science to arise from his initiative launched in May, making California the first state in the nation to offer schools free, open-source digital textbooks.

A primary goal of the initiative was to ensure that the digital textbooks offered would be aligned with state standards, and available to all schools state wide. Towards this end, content developers across the country were invited to submit complete digital textbooks in targeted high school math and science subjects.

The California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) facilitated the review of textbook materials. CLRN is a California Department of Education project that provides a carefully reviewed, central clearinghouse of academically rigorous web resources for classroom teachers.

Following CLRN guidelines, reviewers determined whether the content of each digital textbook submitted met the State Board of Education standards in the target subject areas: geometry, algebra II, trigonometry, calculus, physics, chemistry, biology, life science and earth science.

A total of 16 digital textbooks were extensively reviewed, with ten ultimately selected after determining that each met at least 90 percent of California's standards. Four of these texts met 100 percent of the state standards, including three submitted by Palo Alto's CK-12 Foundation, a local non-profit specializing in developing digital textbooks for education.  

View the list of all reviewed digital  textbooks and review reports here.

In the classroom, digital textbooks can be accessed in a variety of ways, including projecting the material on a screen, downloading onto individual computers, printing chapter by chapter, or binding as complete texts. Compared to traditional publisher-printed textbooks, the cost of printing and binding even entire texts downloaded for free from a website, is much gentler on school budgets.

The digital textbook initiative may possibly earn individual California school districts additional funds through the competitive portion of the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) federal grants, to be administered by the California State Department of Education.

This initiative certainly thrusts California to the head of the line in “brick and mortar” debates around the country regarding the pace of integrating online and "kindle"-like, paper-free learning alternatives into modern schooling. Many believe that such modernization of the schools will simply (or, “at last”) align the classroom with a 21st century society and workplace. 

For more information about other schools using digital textbooks in the classroom, see the New York Times article describing the district-wide adoption of open-source digital textbooks in two Arizona school districts.

For more information on the objectives of the California  Digital Textbooks Initiative, see this fact sheet.